Forex Trading Examples (part 1)

Example 1

Many beginning traders don't fully understand the concept of leverage. Basically, if you have a start up capital of $5,000 and if you trade on a 1:50 margin you can effectively control a capital of $250,000. However, a two percent move against you and your capital is completely wiped out. If you are a beginning trader you should not use more than 1:20 margin until you get comfortable and profitable and then and only then you can attempt to use higher margins.

What does 1:20 margin mean? It means that with your $5,000 you will control a capital of $100,000. Let's say you are trading EUR/USD and by using our entry strategy you have decided to enter the trade on a long side. That means that you are betting that USD will depreciate against Euro.

Let's say current EUR/USD rate is 1.305. Again, if your trading capital is $5,000 and you are using 1:20 leverage you will effectively be exchanging $100,000 to Euros. If the current rate is 1.305 you will receive 100,000/1.305 = 76,628 Euros.

If the trade goes in your direction margin will work in your favour and 1% decline in USD will mean 20% increase in your start up capital. So if EUR/USD rate moves from 1.305 to 1.318 you will be able to exchange your 76, 628 Euros back to $101,000 for a profit of $1,000. Since your start up capital was $5,000 it is effectively a 20% increase in your account. However, if the trade went against you and USD appreciated 1% vs. Euro your account would be reduced to $4,000. That would not have happened as our strategy has built in hard stops to prevent such outcome.

Example 2

The most frequently asked question of aspiring traders is "How much money can I make?" Unfortunately there's no easy answer, because it depends how much you are willing to risk.

Trading is a function of risk and reward: The more you risk, the more you can make. Here's an easy example: Let's say you start with a $5,000 account and you're willing to risk $1,000. Now you could place a trade to go long at the opening, set a profit goal of $1,000 and a stop loss of $1,000. Let's say you investigated the market behavior in the past couple of months and realized that your chances of achieving your profit goal are 60%.

Unfortunately the trade you just placed is a loser, and you lose the whole $1,000. Since this was the amount you were wiling to risk, you close your account, transfer the remaining $4,000 back in to your checking account and that's it for you.

Now let's assume you wanted to risk only $100 per trade and you adjusted your profit goal to $100, too. Now you can make at least 10 trades, because only if all 10 trades are losers you'll lose the $1,000 you are willing to risk. I don't want to become too mathematical, but statistics says that the probability of having 10 losing trades in a row is less than 1%. Therefore it's highly likely that you will have a couple of winners within the 10 trades. If your trading system shows the same performance as it did in the past (60% winning percentage), you should make $200: 4 losing trades * $100 = -$400 + 6 winning trades * $100 = $600. Make sense?

Compare these two options:

The risk of losing your money in scenario 1 is 40%. But if you won, you would have made $1,000.

In scenario 2 the risk of losing your money after 10 trades is less than 1%, but you have a fair chance of making $200. Therefore you need to define first how much you are willing to risk, since the amount you can make is a function of that risk. Make sense? I'll give you more specific examples later in this chapter.

Keep in mind that there's a difference between the amount you need to trade and the amount you're willing to risk. Your broker is always asking your for a "margin", and you need to fund your account with that margin requirement + your risk. In our previous example you funded your account with $5,000, but you only risked $1,000. More on that later.

Example 3

50:1 Leverage: what does it mean?

With a minimum account of USD 10,000, for example, you can trade up to USD 500,000. The USD 10,000 is posted on margin as a guarantee for the future performance of your position.

Example 4

The AUD/USD rate is quoted at '0.7500/04'. This quote represents the bid/offer spread for AUD vs USD. The offer rate of 0.7504 is the rate at which you can purchase AUD (or BUY AUD and SELL USD). The bid rate of 0.7500 is the rate at which you can Sell AUD to buy USD.

You believe that the Australian Dollar will strengthen against the US Dollar, and decide to BUY or 'go long' A$100,000 @ 0.7504 (the offer price).
Quote (bid/offer) 0.7500/04
Buy Price 0.7504
Volume A$100,000
Initial Outlay (1% margin) A$1,000

In the example above you have purchased A$100,000. But because FX is traded on margin with CMC Markets you will only need A$1,000 (1%) to maintain the same market exposure.

The risk on this AUD/USD trade is equivalent to US$10 per each point movement. Each point is valued at 0.0001. For example if the AUD/USD rate moves from 0.7504 to 0.7505 you will receive a profit of US$10.

Your prediction is correct and the Australian Dollar appreciates against the US Dollar. The quote on AUD/USD is now 0.7590/94. To close your position, you decide to SELL A$100,000 @ 0.7590 (the bid price).
Quote (bid/offer) 0.7590/94
Sell Price 0.7590
Volume A$100,000
Profit/Loss US$860 Profit

Your profit and loss is usually calculated in the secondary currency. Therefore the above AUD/USD trade profit/loss is calculated in US Dollars. With CMC Markets no brokerage or commission charges will be subtracted from your gross profit. You will only be charged a financing cost if you hold your position overnight.
Profit/loss Calculation:
Size of trade x (sell price - buy price) = profit & loss USD
100,000 x (0.7590 - 0.7504) = US$860 profit
Or, converting the US$860 back to A$ at a rate of 0.7590

If you anticipated incorrectly and sold AUD at 0.7500 and later bought AUD at 0.7594, a loss of US$940 would have been experienced.

Example 5

If you want to buy/sell a specific amount of GBP, first enter the symbol GBP as the transaction currency. Then choose USD as the settlement currency from the drop down menu. You will then receive the quote USD/GBP, e.g. Bid: 1.5300 Ask: 1.5310
This means that GBP 1 = US$1.53XX

If you want to buy GBP 10,000, click on the ask and enter 10,000 as the quantity of GBP that you wish to buy. You will pay $1.5300 for each GBP. Thus, you will pay $15,310.

If you want to sell GBP 10,000, click on the bid and enter 10,000 as the quantity of GBP that you wish to sell. You will receive $1.5300 for each GBP. Thus, you will receive $15,300.

Example 6

If you want to buy/sell a specific amount of USD. First enter the symbol USD as the transaction currency. Then choose GBP as the settlement currency from the drop down menu. You will then receive the quote GBP/USD, e.g. Bid: 0.6530 Ask: 0.6536

This means that USD 1 = GBP 0.653XX

If you want to buy USD 10,000, click on the ask and enter 10,000 as the quantity of USD that you wish to buy. You will pay GBP0.6536 for each USD. Thus, you
will pay GBP 6,536.

If you want to sell USD 10,000, click on the bid and enter 10,000 as the quantity of USD that you wish to sell. You will receive GBP0.6530 for each USD.
Thus, you will receive GBP 6,530.